Mental health challenges specific to RSEs

Last updated on 2024-05-02 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • What are the specific features of research software engineering?
  • Which specific mental health challenges the RSE context may bring?

Objectives

  • Learn about common mental health challenges in the RSE context.
  • Identify challenges you specifically relate to.
Bar plot showing the answers to Dave Horsfall's RSE mental health survey (2022) to the question 'Since working in the RSE community, which of the following negative feelings have troubled you at work?'. The 3 most common negative feelings, each affecting more than 20% of the respondent, are 'Feeling you're not up to the job', 'Lack of control over workload', 'Feeling you don't fit in'.
Results of Dave Horsfall’s RSE mental health survey (2022) to the question “Since working in the RSE community, which of the following negative feelings have troubled you at work?”

Workload

RSEs are often involved in complex projects involving multiple stakeholders, and sometimes in multiple projects at once. Because it is not always clear to our collaborators what our work consist on, it can lead to request for more work than can be achieved in a normal day. This can be especially true for “behind the scenes” work, such as DevOps or Project Management. This very high workload and pressure can ultimately lead to total burn out. Importantly, even if it doesn’t result in straight-up burn out, the constant pressure and feeling of overwhelm negatively impact the RSEs mental health.

Context switching

On top of the practical workload, the multitude of projects, and tasks within the project (meeting with the users, project management, etc.) leads to context switching. Context switching is the fact that, when switching between unrelated tasks or projects, your brain needs time to adjust, be reminded of where you were at, and get started on the new task.

Working alone or forced socialization

Individuals can have very different needs and preferences in terms of social interaction and socialization. When these meets are not met, it can lead to a feeling of distress.

Expectations to keep technical knowledge up to date

The technological landscape is evolving at a very rapid pace, and RSEs are sometimes expected to stay up to date with these evolutions, on top of their day-to-day workload.

Job insecurity

Previously mentioned structural issues issues and stressors are compounded by the general job insecurity in academia and in the tech sector, the intersection of which corresponds to RSE jobs. Permanent position in academia are rare and subject to an intense competition, and the tech has seen massive lay-offs in 2021-2024.

Impostor syndrome

All of this leads to a widespread impostor syndrome in our community. The impostor syndrome is a feeling of inadequacy, and the sense that one doesn’t deserve to be in their current position. The large range of backgrounds in the RSE space can also reinforce this feeling.

Challenge

Take 5 minutes to reflect about which of these challenges you relate to, and which of these stressors are present in your life.

Key Points

  • RSEs face a number of specific challenges, which can impact their mental health.
  • These negative feelings are common and shared by many RSEs, and are the result of structural, rather than personal, issues.
  • Emergency support is available from the Samaritans at: 116-123 or via email: